The Nintendo 64’s wires hung in the air. “It’s going in the garbage!” my Dad bellowed, grip loosening on the newly bought console. “We’ve all had enough of this!”

I stood, horrified, afraid that he’d actually do it. He’d bought it, so he had the right to throw it away, but that didn’t make the dead feeling in my stomach any better.

The night had ended as many nights had over the few weeks we owned the console and the offending game. Screaming.

Over who had been cheap, who used what character, and who teamed up against whom, my brothers and I brawled both on and off screen.

Seeing the console hanging over the open garbage can was terrifying. I was ready to dive for it if it fell.

With some intervention on the behalf of my Mom, the end result of the fight was a weekday video game ban that would have made Jack Thompson proud.

Under lock and key, the console would stay until the weekend. My brothers and I haven’t played Super Smash Bros. competitively for a long, long time.

It was a typical night in the O’Mara family household.

Anyone who has played Super Smash Bros. probably has a story like this. A story where someone had been overly competitive, someone had hatched a mischievous plan, or someone had picked Kirby.

Nintendo

So it was with a little trepidation that I sat down with my brothers and played a little of Super Smash. Bros. for the Wii U.

***

We’d all picked up the handheld version of the game, but decided against playing it together until we had the “real” game in our hands. And now that we do it’s easy to say the console version is superior to the handheld.

Finicky controls and the small screen were the handheld game’s downfalls, so with the Pro controller in hand and the larger screen those two issues have been solved, sort of.

The game also looks a lot better with stages feeling more dynamic and new characters like Little Mac, Palutena, and Robin showing off their details in full. However, there are differences between the two games.

The three new additions the console version has over the handheld are the 8-Man and Special Brawl, and the Smash Tour. The Special Brawl is a mode from Smash Bros. Brawl that allows you to make your character huge, on fire, or have bunny ears. It’s a mode made for fun and also great to see it return.

Smash Tour is a board game that gives players a circuit to collect power ups, items, and characters. At the end of the 20 to 30 turn match, players square off. It’s a lot like Smash Run on the 3DS in that it’s not that much fun and doesn’t really inspire competition. You kind of just groan your way through matches.

The last of the new modes is the less-than-innovative 8-Man brawl. Much like how it sounds the mode gives you eight players in a single match. The problem with the mode is how it seeps its way into everything. In the single-player Classic and All Star mode you simply can’t escape the game throwing a ton of characters at you on screen.

It’d be a lot more fun if it didn’t make you feel like a vulture waiting for the weak players to take damage, so you can swoop and go for the kill.

Other than those modes, the Wii U and the 3DS versions of the game are virtually identical. Players also have the ability to jump into matches using their handheld, so if you don’t own the console version, but your friend does, you won’t be left out.

The console version also has a lot more content including a much larger Event Match mode, an expanded soundtrack, and more trophies than ever. Break the Targets, however, is still missing being replaced by the ham-handed Angry Birds game that requires repetition over skill to complete.

However, there’s one place the game really dropped the Smash Ball.

There’s no story.

Nintendo

Although this is the “multiplayer” version of the game, I can’t help but feel Super Smash Bros. for Wii U would have been better with a story.

The Subspace Emissary is extremely underrated and it looks like it won’t be returning. It was a really simple story mode and gave the Wii’s incarnation something that none of the other game had even tried.

Every time I’ve watched that cinematic, a little reservoir of nostalgic tears wells up inside of me. The forces of evil are trying to destroy the world of Super Smash Bros. and it’s up to Nintendo’s finest to save the day.

The lack of a Subspace Emissary mode, or any story mode, in Super Smash Bros. U is the single biggest disappointment of the game. It shows a lack of imagination.

It’s a return to the days of Super Smash Bros. Melee where multiplayer was the sole focus, which appeals to some, but not all players.

With the largest roster of characters on the most powerful console to date, which has online support that (probably) actually works, why wouldn’t they try to do more with this game? It would only have benefited from it, but I can see the difficulties of including some of the new characters like Pac Man and Megaman into the story.

Considering these two games had a much shorter development period than Smash Bros. Brawl, I can only assume that taking out a story mode would have considerably sped up production. It probably would have given the teams the extra edge in getting the game out sooner rather than later.

Nintendo

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has holes that simply can’t be filled with trophies and an encyclopedic soundtrack. The customizable characters are interesting, amiibo’s have their finer points, and the multiplayer is smooth, but at its core this is a game left unchanged.

Over the past two months, I’ve played more Smash Bros. than I have in years and I feel pretty nonplussed. Maybe it has to do with age or maybe it’s that I don’t have time to play like I once did.

There are also considerable problems with the game’s roster of characters that had Masahiro Sakurai going on the defensive in an interview with Famitsu.

“This is like a free dessert after a luxurious meal that was prepared free of charge. In a restaurant with this type of service, I don’t think there’s anybody who would say, ‘Change this to a meat dish!’”

“Yet, I’m told [to do that] about Smash Bros,” he said. “But, I guess since a lot of them are children, it cannot be helped.”

***

Maybe Smash Bros. is better going back to its roots without a story or maybe it’s missing something that could have helped the series go beyond the ground it’s already tread on.

After playing a couple of rounds with my brothers, I didn’t even feel that competitive charge that once had my Dad almost throwing out our Nintendo 64.

Maybe I’m complaining too much and this is just a kids game as Sakurai said, but if this is a free dessert they gave us a pretty good, but stale piece of cake.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this story commented on online play. That was an error. The reference was meant to be “multiplayer” not “online” and has been changed to reflect as such.

NOTE: We were unable to test the game’s online under live circumstances. This will likely not change the overall score for the game, but we will stay aware of their status.

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